Congressman Jim Saxton (NJ-3rd) last night completed a bipartisan congressional delegation trip to Iraq to celebrate the Fourth of July with U.S. service members.
"Congress owes its strong support to the troops in the field," said Saxton. "It's only a short flight and hamburgers and hot dogs to us, but to the soldiers I met, it seemed like a whole lot more. The National Guard troops I ate with genuinely seemed happy to see us."
Congressman Saxton and Congressman Jim Marshall (D-Ga.), both of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), met and ate with troops from the 111th Engineer Battalion of the Texas Army National Guard for a meal of hot dogs, hamburgers, and other holiday fare.
Saxton also met with Gen. George Casey, commander of Multi-National Forces in Iraq, to discuss the situation in Iraq. He also met service members from New Jersey.
"Gen. Casey came to Congress in June, so I was pleased to go to Iraq to meet with him in the field," Saxton said. "To hear testimony on Capitol Hill about morale and operations is one thing, but to see things in person in the theater of operations is another. I'm glad I went."
On June 23, Casey joined Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Meyer, Gen. John Abizaid (CENTCOM commander), and Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq who all testified before the HASC.
Saxton represents Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base, both of which have deployed troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.
As Chairman of the House Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, Saxton has traveled to Iraq to meet with U.S. and Iraqi military and civilian authorities in October 2003, February 2004 and January 2005. Background info on those trips is available at
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